Trimming board



l"iled 1 e lo' 1939 2 Sheet S-Sheet INVENTOR Jmz, 1940 F. M. LUND l2,185,985

THINKING BOARD Filed June 1o, lss 2 sheets-sheet 2 INVENT OR.

ATTORNEYS Patented Jan. 2, 1940 TRIMM'ING BOARD Frank M. Lund, Chicago,lll., assigner of fifty per cent to Adolph I. Blanc, Chicago. Ill.

Application June 10, 1939, Serial No. 278,474

4 Claims.

My invention relates to trimming boards, such as those employed fortrimming photographs.

The invention has for its object the provision of an improved trimmingboard having certain desirable features not heretofore employed on thistype of equipment.

Trimming boards have been produced for a long period of time wherein acutting edge was l disposed along one side of a generallyrectanguprojecting over the cutting edge. Conventionally,

this type of trimming board has been provided with cross lines on itsupper surface dividing the U board into squares, generally an inch eachway, and, at the top of the board, a scale was provided showing thedistance from the cutting edge in either inches or metric gures. Thistype of n trimming board has been identified almost entirely withphotographic work and as a consequence has often been referred to as aphotographic paper trimmer. Its simplicity and utility have been so wellknown that its marked disadvantages in many instances have not beengiven consideration.

As one illustration, it is almost impossible to work in a dark room andexpect to get any degree of accuracy, since the paper must be heldcarefully along the ruled lines in order to square it up for cutting.Even when it ls employed outside of a dark room, it is practicallyimpossibleto obtain adequate cutting speed because ofthe time requiredto true up the paper to the lines ruled on the board. 'I'his isparticularly true when an attempt is made to use the old trimming boardas a senil-production implement, a manner in which it is often used insmall photographic establishments. As an example, it may be desired tomake enlargement prints of a sizenot standard, andthe most advantageousway of accomplishing this is to cut photographic print paper from largersheets into sheets of a size desired, and this must be done in a darkroom, and the operation may be repeated time after time. 'I'he black orbrown ruled lines on the old, natural wood colored board, cannot be seenreadilyin a dark room; if they can be seen faintly, it Vtakes a greatdeal of time to arranged the paper on the board so that it will cut inthe rectangular 50 shape usually desired. 1,'

lThe disadvantages outlined above are illustrative' and are suggestiveof specic objects of the invention and the functions and advantagessecured by my invention, as brought out in the following specication.

lar member and a cutting knife pivoted nearl the cutting edge acted toshear sheet material' In the drawings,

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary perspective viewshowing a preferred embodimentof a trimming board made in accordance with my invention;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view, taken on the line 2-2 5 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an end elevational view looking toward the cutting edge;

- Fig. 4 is a fragmentary elevational view, looklo ing at the trimmingboard at right angles to Fig. mand.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary perspective view showing a modifiedconstruction.

Reference will be had first to the embodiment u shown in Figs. 1 to'4,inclusive. The trimming board comprises arectangular base member I0,preferablmformed 'of wood, having strips II and I2 preferably runningagainst the grain of the wood to form a rm, non-warpable structure.Inset in one edge of the rectangular base member, and partly overlappingthe same, is a metal strip I3 having a cutting edge I4, with which theknife I6 is adapted to cooperate to produce a shearing action. Astraight edge abutment I1 is secured to another edge of the base member,but projects above the plane upper surface of the base member to form anabutment against which the edge of the paper may lie. The strip I8carrying the cutting edge and. the straight edge abutment I1 are atright angles to each other.

A guide member I8 is carried at the ends of guide and supporting rods I9blfurcated to leave a longitudinal slot 2l through which the Shanks ofthumb nuts 22 extend, these thumb nuts being threaded in suitable metalinserts in the base 35 member. Immediately above the shank portion ofthe thumb nuts, a flange is provided for engaging the rods. I9 andholding them rigidly against the face ofthe base member. The rods. asshown in Fig. 2, are slightly curved upwardly so that when the nuts 22are tightened, the guide member I8 will be held firmly against the faceof the base member. Secured to the underside of the guide member I8, asby welding, so as substantially to form a part thereof, is a vstrip 2345 functioning as a stop and running entirely across the guide member I8and extending beyond it at both ends thereof. When the nuts 22 aretightened, therefore, it is the `stop strip 23 which is held firmlyagainst `the face of the base member.

Near the top and bottom edges of the upper surface of the base member, Iprovide graduated scale sections 24, the graduations being either ininches or in metric equivalents thereof. The scales comprising the scalesections 24 are so ap- 56 plied as to show the distance from the cuttingedge Il;

The cutting blade I6 carries a generally right angular pin 26 pivoted ina bracket 21 secured to the base member. A screw 28 is adjustable on athreaded end of the pin 26 to regulate the tension on a spring 29, and arelatively small. round headed bolt 3I is secured in a fixed position ona tail piece 32 of the cutting blade. As the drawings show, the portionof the bracket 21 within which the pin 26 is pivoted is rounded but hasa slight recess 33.

With this construction, the functioning of the cutting arm is asfollows: The spring 29 tends to move the pin 26 to the right. whenlooking at Fig. 4, and as the cutting knife is raised to a verticalposition, the rounded head of bolt 3| moves to the right with the entireassembly and falls into the recess 33 as a stop so that the cuttingblade can be left in an upright position ready for operation. As theblade is brought downwardly, the rounded head of bolt 3l rides out ofthe recess, throwing the entire blade assembly slightly toward the left,looking at Fig. 4, until the blade engages the straight edge where it isbrought still further to the left by this engagement. The tension on thespring is adjusted to control the amount of friction and, therefore. toa certain extent, the cutting action between the blade and cutting edgeIl. If it should be desired, considerable tension may be placed on thespring 29 so that, if the cutting blade should be knocked down byaccident, its movement will be arrested when it first engages thecutting edge I4 and it will not fall all the way down and possibly causeinjury if the fingers or other part of the operatrs body should be inthe way. It will be noted that the supporting strip I2 projectsotuwardly from the base member I0 a suffi? cient distance to act as astop for the cutter blade.

The principal advantages from the use of my invention flow from theguide arrangement. If paper is to be trimmed to various sizes, that isto say, if-there is not a relatively large number of one size paper tobe cut, the entire guide assembly may be removed by simply removing thethumb nuts 22 and lifting the assembly out of position. The onlyaperture on the top of the board will then be the screw aperture in themetal inserts 36 (Fig. 2) which are placed therein to receive the thumbnuts 22. The top face of the board is square ruled and, in addition, thescale sections 2 4 are provided at top and bottom so that sheets may becut square and to any size possible depending upon the dimensions of theboard. At at least one point I number the lines running parallel to theregular scales, soy that the dimension of the paper in both directionsis readily ascertained. The board can be used in all respects in exactlythe way that the boards of the prior' art have been employed, but withthe added facility which comes from the arrangement of scales.

If, however, several sheets are to be cut to the same size,l the guideI8 is set to that size and, the extending ends of stop strip 23 beingcontiguous to the two scales, the guide may be very accuratelypositioned and the nuts 22 tightened. Because of the slight curve of therods I9, tightening of the nuts 22 holds the strip 23 against the topface of the board and there is no possibility of the paper slippingunder the stop at any point. Since the guide is lined up accurately, itis unnecessary to use the straight edge abutment I1 during a cuttingoperation, but it may be used if the operator should desire to do so. Ifthe paper being cut runs the full dimension of the board, of course, itis necessary to bring it up close to the straight edge abutment I1.Preferably. I give the board an ebony finish with the scales finished inwhite, the guide being preferably a white metal, so that the operatorcan see readily when he is working in the dark room. The photographicpaper, which is usually white, will, of course, contrast with the blackcolor of the board so as to make it possible to see with the limitedlight available in the dark room.

In the embodiment shown inI Fig. 5, I apply the same referencecharacters as those employed in the first described embodiment, theboard in all respects being similar to the first described board withthe exception that the rods I9 are recessed in slots 31 provided in theface of the board. The' straight edge abutment I1, cutting edge I4, andconstruction of the guide and stop strip 23, and other features are, asshown, substantially identical. An advantage of the arrangement of Fig.5 is that the guide I6 does not have to be trued up parallel to thecutting edge I4, since it is always held in position because of the rodsI9 being in the slots 31. The embodiment of Fig. 5, however, suffers bycomparison in some respects with the embodiment of Figs. 1 to 4,inclusive, because it is somewhat more expensive to manufacture, theslots 31 when exposed are apt to leavemarks on certain types of paper,and the stop strip 23 is not held as rigidly to the face of the board asin the first embodiment. When the guide is mounted as shown in Fig. l,some angularity can be imparted to the guide so that to some extent atleast paper may be cut on the bias in the unusual case where this mightbe found to be desirable. In connection with the embodiment of Fig. 5,and, for that matter of course, also the embodiment of Fig. 1, the guidemay carry only a stop point in place of a stop strip, and, in that case,the straight edge abutment I1 would be depended upon to true up thepaper so that a right angular corner would be produced. The strip striphas many advantages in actual use.

Because of the construction and arrangement of the paper guide, I findit possible to cut several thicknesses of paper at a time and stillmaintain the requisite accuracy. Several thicknessesl of paper can beslipped into the recess occupied by the stop strip 23, and if they areheld in position while operating the cutting knife, the cutting actionwill be in the nature of a true right angular shear through` all of thesheets of paper.

There are other minor advantages flowing from the features described,the scope of which features, in combination, is defined in the appendedclaims.

What I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent of theUnited States is:

1. In a trimming board of the character dev-- underneath which recessone edge of a papersheet may extend, a pair of guide and and sup.porting rods having their ends secured to the guide member, saidguides-bifurcated to form a longitudinal slot, and extending in adirection away from the cutting edge. and fastening means extendingthrough said slots .and threaded in the base member near one edgethereof, whereby to hold the guide member in any selected position withrespect to the cutting edge on said plane top surface.

2. A trimming board as dened in claim 1, including a scale near oppositeedges of said plane 10 top surface running parallel to said straightedge abutment, said top strip extending from said guide member at eachend so as to lie along said scales, whereby quick adjustment of theposition of the guide member may be made.

3. A trimming board as defined in claim 1, wherein said guide andsupporting rods` are curved upwardly intermediate their ends away fromsaid plane top surface, whereby tightening of'. said fastening meanscauses said stop strip of theguide member to be pressed tightly downagainst said plane top surface.

4. A trimming board as dened in claim 1, wherein said guide andsupporting rods lie in slots in the face of said base member running atright angles to said cutting edge.

FRANK M. LUND.

